The Executive Council (EC) of Delhi University (DU) has instituted a three-member committee to look into a sexual harassment case from 2017. The complaint was filed by an ad hoc teacher against the then head of the chemistry department- Ramesh Chandra.
In 2018, a year after the complaint was filed, the university failed to take action on the report of the internal complaints committee (ICC). ICC is the sexual investigative body of DU. Instead, the university formed a new committee that cleared Chandra of all charges.
The complainant whose identity has been hidden, wrote a letter to the vice-chancellor, PC Joshi stating that justice has been long denied to her. She said that it was only through newspapers that she knew about the EC’s meetings regarding her case.
In her letter, she writes-
“The incident took place on December 17, 2017, and the ICC submitted its report in May 2018. Since then, there have been several EC meetings, but I have always been kept in the dark about whatever was discussed or decided in my case. It gives me immense pain that committees after committees are formed and legal opinions taken, yet they (the accused) still walk free enjoying all the benefits of their position and authority. The primary accused is, in fact, unabashedly and quite publicly trumpeting about the strong possibility of him getting a clean chit.”
The complainant claims the new committee to be illegal as it does not abide by UGC regulations of 2015. The DU teacher’s union, DU academic council and university court have all shown their support for the complainant. They’ve also written to the VC on 24th February stating they had- “strong reservations over the constitution of the SL Bhayana committee (the new committee), ignoring the recommendations of the ICC.”
They have alleged suspended VC Yogesh Tyagi for completely ignoring the recommendations of the ICC which was legally untenable. The ICC report of 2018 had found Chandra and six other accused professors guilty. However, the Bhayana Committee gave a clean shit to the DU professor.
The DU dean of colleges, Balaram Pani said- “The previous administration did not accept the ICC report and formed a new committee that gave a clean chit to Chandra. We wanted to make things clear between the two contradictory reports and the EC took a decision on it. The university wants to bring an end to this issue as the complainant has been waiting for justice for over two years now.”
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